Page 24 - The Creation Of The Universe

22 THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

The "Steady-state" Hypothesis
The Big Bang theory quickly gained wide acceptance in the scientific
world due to the clear-cut evidence for it. Nevertheless astronomers who
favored materialism and adhered to the idea of an infinite universe that ma-
terialism seemingly demanded held out against the Big Bang in their strug-
gle to uphold a fundamental tenet of their ideology. The reason was made
clear by the English astronomer Arthur Eddington, who said
"Philosophically, the notion of an abrupt beginning to the present order of
Nature is repugnant to me". 4
Another astronomer who opposed the Big Bang theory was Fred Hoyle.
Around the middle of the 20th century he came up with a new model,
which he called "steady-state", that was an extension of the 19th century's
idea of an infinite universe. Accepting the incontrovertible evidence that
the universe was expanding, he proposed that the universe was infinite in
both dimension and time. According to this model, as the universe ex-
panded new matter was continuously coming into existence by itself in just
the right amount to keep the universe in a "steady state". With the sole vis-
ible aim of supporting the dogma of "matter existed in infinite time", which
is the basis of the materialist philosophy, this theory was totally at variance
with the "Big Bang theory", which defends that the universe had a begin-
ning. Supporters of Hoyle's steady state theory remained adamantly op-
posed to the Big Bang for years. Science, however, was working against
them.

The Triumph of the Big Bang

In 1948, George Gamov carried George Lemaitre's cal-
culations several steps further and came up with a new
idea concerning the Big Bang. If the universe was formed
in a sudden, cataclysmic explosion, there ought to be a

Sir Arthur Eddington's statement that "the
notion of an abrupt beginning to the pre-
sent order of nature was repugnant to him"
was an admission of the discomfort that
the Big Bang caused for materialists.